Monday, March 26, 2007

Diving with a Monk Seal!

This Saturday I had a fabulous drift dive in between two of my favorite dive sites, and about 10 minutes into the dive, we were joined by an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal! We didn't approach him, and attempted, with the current we were trapped in, to not scare or move towards him, but the seal was very interested in us! He would sneak up behind someone, then, when he was discovered, he would check out the diver head to toe, play with the bubbles, shoot to the surface, bounce the mooring ball, and otherwise show fun, curious behavior! It was really amazing.
He had a transmitter on his back, and his flipper-feet were tagged with #42-43. I called NOAA and let them know.
On Sunday I dove with this fabulous jewelry designer! Check out her stuff!
(Cute Monk Seal Photo courtesy NOAA.)

2 comments:

Mike Lum said...

Oooh...Cool stuff!

Ever thought of diving with a small camera, like mine?

Kel said...

I have definately thought about it, yes. Especially a small digital without huge strobes. The monk seal? One diver had a camera...with a dead battery! Another diver had felt nervous about the drift dive and left the camera on the boat. And another diver, who always has a camera, left it at home because he was hosting his brother and didn't want to be burdened! Sometimes it is like the animals know when you have all forgotten the cameras and they show up just to mess with us! When are you coming out diving?!?!